Rise of the Flame: Chapter One
Many say that within the deepest darkness there is a spark of light and that in the brightest light there is a stain of darkness. There is no such thing as a heart of gold because everyone haves darkness within their heart. But… What do you do when that darkness overcomes you?
I am Hana Kaname of the Kaname Clan, the most elite clan of hunters out there. Hunters? Why yes, we hunt were wolves, vampires, demons, angels, darklings, the works! Wonderful, yes? Heh, yea no. Hunting is not something to be proud of… At least, not to me. I am the only one in my clan, besides my older brother, that refuses to hunt and therefore I am an outcast. I attend the high school HU, Hunters United. My current grades are all F’s because I refuse to do the homework and tests that involve how to kill “creatures”, which is every assignment. All my peers and teachers hate me, which is fine by me I don’t like them either. My older brother Casey is away at college and I’m stuck here at home with my parents who wish I was the one away from home and not him.
Today is one of my average weekends, go to the woods at dawn and campout the whole weekend. I don’t have any friends, the only friends I ever had were twin brothers when I was a little girl. Jason, a demon, and Tyler, a vampire, pretty cool huh? They were my best friends growing up until my parents found out and sent me to a hunter’s boarding school, I haven’t seen them since. Casey had a whole bunch of “creature” friends, they all treated me like a little sister and check up on me every now and then for Casey. I haven’t seen any of them in a couple of weeks which is just a tad bit strange, they always check up on me during my weekend trips. As my dyed maroon combat boots stomped through the think underbrush of the forest I didn’t care, the thoughts that have been causing me agony drifted away. I felt so at home in the forest, as if this was the only place I belonged.
It felt as if the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders and I took in a deep breath of the pine scented air, the forest helped me remember that I had survived another week of this retched life. The tall old pines towered over me and blocked out the dying rays of the fading sun. A comforting warmth flooded through me as the trees started to thin out and opened up the entrance to my secret retreat. A wide meadow with orange, yellow, and red wildflowers welcomed me home. To the Far East corner laid a rocky cliff face with a waterfall breaking over its edge to a stream that wrapped around the meadow. I looked up at the cliff face and saw a small rock form jutting out of the cliff with a small nest of feathers and twigs nuzzled on top of it. Looks like Danny finally laid her eggs. I thought with a small smile. Danny was a female hawk that I had saved from a sly fox when one of her wings was broken. I nursed her back to health and helped her build that nest for her future eggs.
I swayed through the wildflowers towards a small grove of Cherry Blossom trees, or in Japanese Sakura tress. This is slightly ironic since in Japanese my first name, Hana, means “flower”. How is it ironic? Well my name means flower and I have long neon red hair that touches my lower back, wide soft dark brown eyes, and dress like a “punk” if you want to label me. Today my wardrobe consists of a dark red tank top, black lace fishnet knuckle gloves that reach my elbows, a pair of black jeans with chains clinking from my belt loops, and maroon dyed combat boots. So when my name means flower and I dress like this people find it strange and ironic. Of course I do not act like an “average” girl; I am “one of the boys”. I play video games, watch bloody/gory movies and TV shows, eat my weight in food, read comic books, drive an old Mustang that I found and fixed up myself, and have no manners. Apparently that is a very bad thing in society, like I care.
So I zigzagged through the wildflowers and sat down under the oldest Sakura tree in the grove, this was my normal sleeping spot. I leaned against the cool, rough bark of the tree and sighed. A small shriek from the cliff warned me that a certain hawk was heading my way, I raised my right arm and smiled as a brown flash landed on my arm just above my wrist. I bent my elbow and came face to face with a beautiful tan beak and kind dark eyes. Danny tilted her head and nuzzled my cheek with the curve of her beak, I let out a small chuckle and stroked the soft feathers of her neck with my free hand. “Yesterday was horrible Danny.” I told her. “I had to write an essay for History 101 about one of my ancestors that I respected the most. So I wrote about great grandma Rosie, when I was told to stand up in front of the class and read my report I did. Of course I was booed at and was given an F, some people just have no respect for heroes…” I grumbled and lowered my eyes to the grass under my legs.
My great grandmother was Rosie Kaname, she was born a lycan. Lycans are were wolves that change at will unlike were wolves that transform on full moons or something weird like that. Being born a lycan in a hunter clan tends to be very bad, but Rosie didn’t care. She ran away from the clan and became the leader of a group of “creatures” that rebelled against hunters and tried to take them down. Unfortunately Rosie died at the end of the battle trying to protect her mate and followers, she died at the hands of her would be husband if she didn’t ran away from the clan. Before the battle Rosie gave birth to a pair of twin boys a little human boy and a lycan boy, her mate a darkling was soon killed after the battle and their human son was taken back to the clan and raised a hunter. The other son was taken away by Rosie’s best friend the leader of the lycans and raised to be their next leader. Casey told me the story but never said much other than that, no one ever told me about what happened to the twin brothers or what a darkling is. But most of all no one ever told me what happened to Rosie while she built an army. I respect great grandma Rosie more than anyone else on this torn planet, all hunters hate her guts for betraying them and for trying to destroy them. But for this I respect her, now I am looked down on but not yet hated for that. I only wish I could have met her, that I could ask her so many things…
Danny tilted her head again and leapt up onto a branch just above me, she stared down at me and I smiled weakly back at her. I closed my eyes and let out a soft groan, my family made no sense with their idiotic ways and thoughts. Just as I was getting all nice and comfy and starting to drift off into a peaceful slumber my phone blasts the Jaws theme. I yelped and jumped standing up immediately and looked around, after a moment I realized it was my cell phone making that noise. With a shrug I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and looked at the caller I.D. MOM in big bold letters flashed at me on the little blue screen. I was going to just ignore the call but my better judgment got the best of me and I flipped it open and pressed the phone to my ear. “Yes?” I muttered leaning my side into the tree I was just sitting under. “Sweetie there’s someone here to see you.” My mother’s slightly to high pitched voice replied to me. I frowned slightly and pulled the phone away from my ear to look at the small blue screen, I pressed the phone back to my ear and held back a sigh. “Mom… It’s almost 8 at night and I just got to my campsite… It took me hours to get here and no one ever wants to see me.” I retorted holding back the urge to hang up. “Yes well someone is here to see you so you need to get back home within an hour.” She replied a hint of steel in her voice. “Yea well I’d rather not see you or dad at the moment and I don’t ever listen to you so why should I start now?” I hissed back then closed my phone. Turning it off I watched the glowing blue screen fade to black and shut off before stuffing it back in my pocket.
Mom never showed any love towards me so I never showed any love towards her, plain and simple. Now I could finally get some peace for at least one night, plopping back down in my now cold seat I sighed and closed my eyes again. After a few moments sleep overcame me and I drifted off into a dreamless slumber.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A cold breeze drifted through the meadow and caused me to shudder and slowly awake. Slowly I opened my right eye to peer around the meadow and what I saw made my other eye shot open. I crouched in my seat under the old Sakura tree and pulled out a small dagger from the inside of one of my combat boots. I stood and twisted the small dagger in my hand so its blade ran along my wrist and arm, with narrowed eyes I stared at the figures standing before me. They were cloaked in black cloaks with the hoods pulled up to cast shadows on their faces. There were at least five from what I could see and they looked well built, wide torsos and shoulders and very tall. Who seemed to be the leader from their bigger build took a step forward and removed his hood. Silver hair that just brushed below his ears and large ocean blue eyes with no emotion stared at me as I shifted slightly under their stares. Something felt wrong, I could feel it! But what was it? The leader opened his mouth and spoke, his voice was low and sounded like a slight growl that was barely above a whisper. “Are you Hana Kaname direct descendant of Rosie Kaname?” He asked in that strange chilling voice. Goosebumps raised the hairs on my arms and back of my neck, my throat went dry and closed up. Afraid of my voice cracking or stuttering I simply nodded and silently cursed myself for been so overcome by the man’s mere presence.
The man put a hand on his chin and eyed me with slightly narrowed eyes, he grunted and tilted his head towards me. It must have been some sort of signal because the hooded figure standing to his left took off their hood to show a woman with long raven black hair tied loosely behind her head. She opened her eyes to show her right silver eye and left green eye, what an odd set of eye colors... She stared at me for a moment and tilted her head to the side, a small smile formed on her pale lips. “You look much like Rosie young one. We have come with a message from your brother.” She whispered in a soft low tone. I blinked and shook my head, finally my throat loosened and was no longer dry. “And what message does my brother send?” I growled thankful that my voice sounded menacing instead of scared. The woman chuckled and the man snorted which slightly angered me. Did they think I was some kind of joke? “We mean you know harm dear, we are messengers not fighters. Now, your brother says that he will return home soon but you are in grave danger. History is repeating itself and another war rages upon us, he wishes for you to go to his old school. The one he was attending before he left for collage, which is the only place you will be safe. The headmaster was the one who came to your house last night, he is looking for you at this very moment. Go home quickly and you shall find him, be swift for your time is running out. That is all we can say now, our time is up.” She said quickly and started to fade. They all did, the cloaks slowly started to dissolve and the meadow seemed to blur. I raised a hand towards them and opened my mouth to ask them to wait but no words came out. The figures were gone and the meadow was now a dense fog that faded into darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sat up and opened my eyes gasping for breath, a thin layer of cold sweat covered my skin. Taking in a shaky breath I looked around the meadow to see it was normal. The sun was just starting to rise and shinned over the meadow to welcome a new day. It was just a dream. But that didn’t stop me from standing up and gathering my things. My legs were stiff and my lower back ached slightly, I should have lain down on the grass instead of the cold rough roots of the tree, figures. The dream haunted my mind and sent shivers down my back. My time was running out? What did they mean by that? I pondered this for a moment before shrugging and started to quick jog in the direction of home. After two hours of jogging, jumping over roots and stones, and tripping here and there I finally made it home. I was slightly winded and scolded myself for not training during the week like I should have, if I did I wouldn’t have been tired like I was and my legs wouldn’t feel like jelly.
The house in which I lived in was a two story mini mansion, being a house that looked like a mansion yet was too small to be one. It almost looked like a dollhouse; a small tower like shape jutted from the far right end of the house yet was still firmly connected to it. The house it’s self was painted an off white with dark brown shutters on the smaller windows and the roof being a non-shiny metallic grey. The “tower” was actually three stories high the highest floor being my room. The backyard had a small picket white fence on its edges than a few yards away laid the forest from which I had emerged. I walked around the picket fence towards the front of the house and as I passed I looked up at the windows. All were dark with no trace of light, odd mom always had a light on in every room no matter the time of day. Finally I reached the front of the house and looked up at dark windows, upon looking down the drive way I could see moms SUV, dads Hummer, and my Mustang but there was also a fourth car. A black pick-up truck with some sort of sheet covering the bed, strange I never saw that truck before. The headmaster is the one who came to your house last night, he is looking for you at this very moment. The woman’s words from my dream fluttered through my mind and I nodded slightly, looks like the headmaster stayed overnight or came back pretty damn early.
Many say that within the deepest darkness there is a spark of light and that in the brightest light there is a stain of darkness. There is no such thing as a heart of gold because everyone haves darkness within their heart. But… What do you do when that darkness overcomes you?
I am Hana Kaname of the Kaname Clan, the most elite clan of hunters out there. Hunters? Why yes, we hunt were wolves, vampires, demons, angels, darklings, the works! Wonderful, yes? Heh, yea no. Hunting is not something to be proud of… At least, not to me. I am the only one in my clan, besides my older brother, that refuses to hunt and therefore I am an outcast. I attend the high school HU, Hunters United. My current grades are all F’s because I refuse to do the homework and tests that involve how to kill “creatures”, which is every assignment. All my peers and teachers hate me, which is fine by me I don’t like them either. My older brother Casey is away at college and I’m stuck here at home with my parents who wish I was the one away from home and not him.
Today is one of my average weekends, go to the woods at dawn and campout the whole weekend. I don’t have any friends, the only friends I ever had were twin brothers when I was a little girl. Jason, a demon, and Tyler, a vampire, pretty cool huh? They were my best friends growing up until my parents found out and sent me to a hunter’s boarding school, I haven’t seen them since. Casey had a whole bunch of “creature” friends, they all treated me like a little sister and check up on me every now and then for Casey. I haven’t seen any of them in a couple of weeks which is just a tad bit strange, they always check up on me during my weekend trips. As my dyed maroon combat boots stomped through the think underbrush of the forest I didn’t care, the thoughts that have been causing me agony drifted away. I felt so at home in the forest, as if this was the only place I belonged.
It felt as if the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders and I took in a deep breath of the pine scented air, the forest helped me remember that I had survived another week of this retched life. The tall old pines towered over me and blocked out the dying rays of the fading sun. A comforting warmth flooded through me as the trees started to thin out and opened up the entrance to my secret retreat. A wide meadow with orange, yellow, and red wildflowers welcomed me home. To the Far East corner laid a rocky cliff face with a waterfall breaking over its edge to a stream that wrapped around the meadow. I looked up at the cliff face and saw a small rock form jutting out of the cliff with a small nest of feathers and twigs nuzzled on top of it. Looks like Danny finally laid her eggs. I thought with a small smile. Danny was a female hawk that I had saved from a sly fox when one of her wings was broken. I nursed her back to health and helped her build that nest for her future eggs.
I swayed through the wildflowers towards a small grove of Cherry Blossom trees, or in Japanese Sakura tress. This is slightly ironic since in Japanese my first name, Hana, means “flower”. How is it ironic? Well my name means flower and I have long neon red hair that touches my lower back, wide soft dark brown eyes, and dress like a “punk” if you want to label me. Today my wardrobe consists of a dark red tank top, black lace fishnet knuckle gloves that reach my elbows, a pair of black jeans with chains clinking from my belt loops, and maroon dyed combat boots. So when my name means flower and I dress like this people find it strange and ironic. Of course I do not act like an “average” girl; I am “one of the boys”. I play video games, watch bloody/gory movies and TV shows, eat my weight in food, read comic books, drive an old Mustang that I found and fixed up myself, and have no manners. Apparently that is a very bad thing in society, like I care.
So I zigzagged through the wildflowers and sat down under the oldest Sakura tree in the grove, this was my normal sleeping spot. I leaned against the cool, rough bark of the tree and sighed. A small shriek from the cliff warned me that a certain hawk was heading my way, I raised my right arm and smiled as a brown flash landed on my arm just above my wrist. I bent my elbow and came face to face with a beautiful tan beak and kind dark eyes. Danny tilted her head and nuzzled my cheek with the curve of her beak, I let out a small chuckle and stroked the soft feathers of her neck with my free hand. “Yesterday was horrible Danny.” I told her. “I had to write an essay for History 101 about one of my ancestors that I respected the most. So I wrote about great grandma Rosie, when I was told to stand up in front of the class and read my report I did. Of course I was booed at and was given an F, some people just have no respect for heroes…” I grumbled and lowered my eyes to the grass under my legs.
My great grandmother was Rosie Kaname, she was born a lycan. Lycans are were wolves that change at will unlike were wolves that transform on full moons or something weird like that. Being born a lycan in a hunter clan tends to be very bad, but Rosie didn’t care. She ran away from the clan and became the leader of a group of “creatures” that rebelled against hunters and tried to take them down. Unfortunately Rosie died at the end of the battle trying to protect her mate and followers, she died at the hands of her would be husband if she didn’t ran away from the clan. Before the battle Rosie gave birth to a pair of twin boys a little human boy and a lycan boy, her mate a darkling was soon killed after the battle and their human son was taken back to the clan and raised a hunter. The other son was taken away by Rosie’s best friend the leader of the lycans and raised to be their next leader. Casey told me the story but never said much other than that, no one ever told me about what happened to the twin brothers or what a darkling is. But most of all no one ever told me what happened to Rosie while she built an army. I respect great grandma Rosie more than anyone else on this torn planet, all hunters hate her guts for betraying them and for trying to destroy them. But for this I respect her, now I am looked down on but not yet hated for that. I only wish I could have met her, that I could ask her so many things…
Danny tilted her head again and leapt up onto a branch just above me, she stared down at me and I smiled weakly back at her. I closed my eyes and let out a soft groan, my family made no sense with their idiotic ways and thoughts. Just as I was getting all nice and comfy and starting to drift off into a peaceful slumber my phone blasts the Jaws theme. I yelped and jumped standing up immediately and looked around, after a moment I realized it was my cell phone making that noise. With a shrug I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and looked at the caller I.D. MOM in big bold letters flashed at me on the little blue screen. I was going to just ignore the call but my better judgment got the best of me and I flipped it open and pressed the phone to my ear. “Yes?” I muttered leaning my side into the tree I was just sitting under. “Sweetie there’s someone here to see you.” My mother’s slightly to high pitched voice replied to me. I frowned slightly and pulled the phone away from my ear to look at the small blue screen, I pressed the phone back to my ear and held back a sigh. “Mom… It’s almost 8 at night and I just got to my campsite… It took me hours to get here and no one ever wants to see me.” I retorted holding back the urge to hang up. “Yes well someone is here to see you so you need to get back home within an hour.” She replied a hint of steel in her voice. “Yea well I’d rather not see you or dad at the moment and I don’t ever listen to you so why should I start now?” I hissed back then closed my phone. Turning it off I watched the glowing blue screen fade to black and shut off before stuffing it back in my pocket.
Mom never showed any love towards me so I never showed any love towards her, plain and simple. Now I could finally get some peace for at least one night, plopping back down in my now cold seat I sighed and closed my eyes again. After a few moments sleep overcame me and I drifted off into a dreamless slumber.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A cold breeze drifted through the meadow and caused me to shudder and slowly awake. Slowly I opened my right eye to peer around the meadow and what I saw made my other eye shot open. I crouched in my seat under the old Sakura tree and pulled out a small dagger from the inside of one of my combat boots. I stood and twisted the small dagger in my hand so its blade ran along my wrist and arm, with narrowed eyes I stared at the figures standing before me. They were cloaked in black cloaks with the hoods pulled up to cast shadows on their faces. There were at least five from what I could see and they looked well built, wide torsos and shoulders and very tall. Who seemed to be the leader from their bigger build took a step forward and removed his hood. Silver hair that just brushed below his ears and large ocean blue eyes with no emotion stared at me as I shifted slightly under their stares. Something felt wrong, I could feel it! But what was it? The leader opened his mouth and spoke, his voice was low and sounded like a slight growl that was barely above a whisper. “Are you Hana Kaname direct descendant of Rosie Kaname?” He asked in that strange chilling voice. Goosebumps raised the hairs on my arms and back of my neck, my throat went dry and closed up. Afraid of my voice cracking or stuttering I simply nodded and silently cursed myself for been so overcome by the man’s mere presence.
The man put a hand on his chin and eyed me with slightly narrowed eyes, he grunted and tilted his head towards me. It must have been some sort of signal because the hooded figure standing to his left took off their hood to show a woman with long raven black hair tied loosely behind her head. She opened her eyes to show her right silver eye and left green eye, what an odd set of eye colors... She stared at me for a moment and tilted her head to the side, a small smile formed on her pale lips. “You look much like Rosie young one. We have come with a message from your brother.” She whispered in a soft low tone. I blinked and shook my head, finally my throat loosened and was no longer dry. “And what message does my brother send?” I growled thankful that my voice sounded menacing instead of scared. The woman chuckled and the man snorted which slightly angered me. Did they think I was some kind of joke? “We mean you know harm dear, we are messengers not fighters. Now, your brother says that he will return home soon but you are in grave danger. History is repeating itself and another war rages upon us, he wishes for you to go to his old school. The one he was attending before he left for collage, which is the only place you will be safe. The headmaster was the one who came to your house last night, he is looking for you at this very moment. Go home quickly and you shall find him, be swift for your time is running out. That is all we can say now, our time is up.” She said quickly and started to fade. They all did, the cloaks slowly started to dissolve and the meadow seemed to blur. I raised a hand towards them and opened my mouth to ask them to wait but no words came out. The figures were gone and the meadow was now a dense fog that faded into darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I sat up and opened my eyes gasping for breath, a thin layer of cold sweat covered my skin. Taking in a shaky breath I looked around the meadow to see it was normal. The sun was just starting to rise and shinned over the meadow to welcome a new day. It was just a dream. But that didn’t stop me from standing up and gathering my things. My legs were stiff and my lower back ached slightly, I should have lain down on the grass instead of the cold rough roots of the tree, figures. The dream haunted my mind and sent shivers down my back. My time was running out? What did they mean by that? I pondered this for a moment before shrugging and started to quick jog in the direction of home. After two hours of jogging, jumping over roots and stones, and tripping here and there I finally made it home. I was slightly winded and scolded myself for not training during the week like I should have, if I did I wouldn’t have been tired like I was and my legs wouldn’t feel like jelly.
The house in which I lived in was a two story mini mansion, being a house that looked like a mansion yet was too small to be one. It almost looked like a dollhouse; a small tower like shape jutted from the far right end of the house yet was still firmly connected to it. The house it’s self was painted an off white with dark brown shutters on the smaller windows and the roof being a non-shiny metallic grey. The “tower” was actually three stories high the highest floor being my room. The backyard had a small picket white fence on its edges than a few yards away laid the forest from which I had emerged. I walked around the picket fence towards the front of the house and as I passed I looked up at the windows. All were dark with no trace of light, odd mom always had a light on in every room no matter the time of day. Finally I reached the front of the house and looked up at dark windows, upon looking down the drive way I could see moms SUV, dads Hummer, and my Mustang but there was also a fourth car. A black pick-up truck with some sort of sheet covering the bed, strange I never saw that truck before. The headmaster is the one who came to your house last night, he is looking for you at this very moment. The woman’s words from my dream fluttered through my mind and I nodded slightly, looks like the headmaster stayed overnight or came back pretty damn early.
